TNG Re-Watch Season 2, Episodes 2-6 + I asked for help!

It's time for a quick check-in on my TNG project!  I've continued to plow thru season 2.  I'll post my thoughts on episodes 2-6 below.  Something very exciting is starting with the coming episodes.   I'm adding a 2nd voice to the blog!!  We all know that watching Star Trek isn't nearly as fun when you're all alone so I've asked a few friends to watch with me (even if we have to do that over Skype over a distance).  After the closing credits roll we'll chat about the show (the good, the bad & the ugly) and that conversation will certainly fuel my blog writing!

But before we get to that- we need to dig a little further into season 2.

Ep. 2 "Where Silence Has Lease"

• The highlight of this forgettable episode is Data dishing some Socratic philosophy when he said "The beginning of wisdom, is, "I do not know"".  This statement left a deep impression on a young Mike Jones and has guided me as I search for spiritual truth.  (Woah, we got deep there).  

Me at the real 221B Baker Street

Ep. 3 "Elementary, Dear Data"

• This episode also left a mark on a young Mike Jones and inspired me to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle.  I've been a big Holmes fan ever since. :) 
• This episode asks one of the great Trek questions: "What is life?"  Is Moriarty alive?  Can the holodeck create life?  I'd say that no, it can't.  It can create a replica that is very intelligent but there is no spark of life, right?  We'll deal more with this question in "The Measure of a Man" as it applies to Data.   
• I also have to mention that the producers assumed that Holmes was in the public domain.  They quickly learned their mistake when the Doyle estate sued them.  HAHA!
• They eventually did work out something with the estate and produced a sequel episode in season 6, "Ship in a Bottle".  

Ep. 4 "The Outrageous Okona"

• William O Campbell was an early choice to play William Riker.  I can't quite imagine that after seeing this episode.  Don't get me wrong, he's a good actor- but we didn't see the kind of gravitas that Riker has to easily slip into.  
• This one is just BAD.  I mean... what is happening here?  Are we supopsed  to think this guy is trouble?  Cause he doesn't seem that way.  He comes across as a young frat boy who's thinking with his dick instead of his head.  In the end, he turns out to be a nice guy.  The end.  
• Oh, and the subplot with Data wanting to try comedy doesn't make me even crack a smile.  :(

Ep. 5 "Loud as a Whisper"

• This story's development was clearly affected by the writer's strike.  I understand the idea came from Howie Seago, the classically trained deaf actor who plays Riva.  I think it has a great bones- but ultimately it needed to be cleaned up.  
• In a scene that should have been cut, we get to see the desktop holographic emitter in Picard's ready room.  Where did that go in later seasons?   It's like he just stopped using it!   

Ep. 6 "The Schizoid Man"

• Clearly, Data is the original hipster.  He grew an ugly beard back in 1989!  
• This episode is another example of the writers not using Pulaski very well-- AT ALL.  Why didn't she go to the planet?  Why did they write a silly "medical emergency" that pulled her out of most of the episode?  

OK--- now that I have those out of the way I'm ready to dive into some collaboration!!